Tinley Park trustees this week grudgingly approved zoning changes essential to Moraine Valley Community College's plans to develop a satellite campus on the village's west side. The action provides a green light, of sorts, for a construction schedule, with work intended to be completed in time for January 2010 classes. At Tuesday's Village Board meeting, trustees made it clear they would prefer office or light-industrial development on the nearly 12-acre...

Contractors are rushing to complete Moraine Valley Community College's new satellite building in Tinley Park in time for a planned Oct. 11 grand opening. The $10.5 million, 32,000-square-foot Southwest Education Center at 17900 S. 94th Ave. has been plagued by delays since it was approved in a referendum in early 2006. Voters endorsed it as part of a larger $89 million construction bond issue. The parking lot remains to be completed at the 12.6-acre construction...

The Oak Forest City Council has turned down an application by South Suburban College to set up a satellite campus in the city. College officials say they still would like a western campus, but don`t know where they would build one. The South Holland-based community college had planned to renovate a grocery across from Oak Forest High School, 151st Street and Central Avenue, into a 17-classroom building at a cost of $3.5 million. The plan drew vociferous opposition from nearby...

The president of Chicago State University was scanning the newspaper before an executive staff meeting when he did a double-take. Frank Pogue learned his South Side school would be building an extension campus on the West Side, and state lawmakers were allocating $40 million for it. "Quite frankly, I was not informed," said Pogue, who served as interim president for the 2008-09 academic year. "I don't recall seeing a plan for the project in the year that I was president." ...

South Suburban College trustees have approved the sale of $3.25 million in bonds for a new satellite campus in Oak Forest. Classes could be held there by next January, according to school officials. Half the money would be used to buy the land at 163rd Street and Kilbourn Avenue, and the rest would go toward renovating the 54,000-square-foot office and warehouse complex at the site.

Tinley Park Mayor Edward Zabrocki decided this week not to veto the trustees' approval of zoning changes necessary for Moraine Valley Community College to build a satellite campus at 179th Street and 94th Avenue. Zabrocki said his decision, following a brief closed meeting to discuss potential litigation, spares village residents "a lengthy battle" in court with Moraine Valley over the school's location. Village trustees reluctantly...

A Skokie-based private foundation has given the Illinois Institute of Technology $500,000 to equip the electrical engineering laboratories at IIT West, the institute's satellite campus adjacent to the College of Du Page in Glen Ellyn. The grant was provided by the Grainger Foundation, part of W.W. Grainger Inc., a nationwide distributor of electrical and mechanical products. The new labs will be used in a broad range of electronics, digital systems and computer engineering...

Tinley Park trustees this week grudgingly approved zoning changes essential to Moraine Valley Community College's plans to develop a satellite campus on the village's west side. The action provides a green light, of sorts, for a construction schedule, with work intended to be completed in time for January 2010 classes. At Tuesday's Village Board meeting, trustees made it clear they would prefer office or light-industrial development on the nearly 12-acre...

The Illinois Institute of Technology is actively seeking a site on which to build a $5 million satellite campus in Du Page County. The new IIT West, to be linked by a television system to IIT's main campus on Chicago's South Side, will offer degree programs in engineering, computer science and business administration. The school will be geared to working professionals, technology managers and other part-time students who, for the most part, will attend night and weekend classes.

OAK LAWN Principal to take over as superintendent Less than a week after Oak Lawn Community High School District 229's superintendent announced that he is leaving the one-school district, the board voted to give the job to the principal. "I think he's done a lot for the district, and he's going to be missed," board President Stephen Trotto said of Supt. James Briscoe, pointing to improved test scores, graduation rates and facility improvements. Briscoe, whose last day is June 18, has taken a...

St. Xavier University has long considered establishing a satellite campus in the southwest suburbs to follow that part of its market that has moved from Chicago's South Side. Now, thanks to the generosity of a couple with long ties to the university, such a facility is closer to becoming reality. The university, the oldest Catholic institution of higher learning in Chicago with an enrollment of about 4,000 undergraduate and graduate students, announced Monday that Robert...

Moraine Valley Community College's building program moved forward this week when the board voted to approve a $73.75 million bond sale to expand its Palos Hills campus, and agreed to buy 12.6 acres in Tinley Park. The bond sale was authorized in March 2006, when voters approved an $89 million campus expansion plan. Since then, architects and engineers have worked on designs for three new buildings at the 17,000-student college. The board also voted to finalize the purchase of land at...

The College of Du Page has agreed to buy 9.1 acres at Swift and Army Trail Roads for a satellite campus that would serve the northern part of Du Page County. The college board approved buying the land last week for $650,000 from Marquardt Elementary School District 15. "This is going to provide excellent visibility for the college since (the land) is located just off of I-355 (North-South Tollway)," said Bill Troller, a college spokesman. The northern part of the...

For more than 15 years, Joe and Jolene Frazier drove 45 minutes from their home in Crystal Lake to Sunday and midweek services at Willow Creek Community Church in South Barrington. "It got old plenty in January and the colder months, but once I got there, it was always worth the trip," Jolene Frazier said. Now the Fraziers make a 10-minute drive to a satellite church in McHenry County. The shorter distance means Jolene Frazier can sleep in on Sundays and has an easier time encouraging...

Pace officially opened its transit center Monday at the Sears, Roebuck and Co. business park. The transportation service built the center to serve the 786-acre Prairie Stone development. The center will accommodate eight buses, and approximately 800 daily riders are expected to use the facility, which is located near the satellite campus of Northern Illinois University.

It's out with the old and in with the new for St. Xavier University's southwest suburban campus. The university began moving operations last week from its leased 17,500-square-foot satellite campus in Tinley Park to a new, $8.3 million, 31,000-square-foot facility on 35 acres west of Interstate Highway 80 and La Grange Road in Orland Park. The move is to be completed in time for classes to begin in the new facility after the holidays. Officials had hoped to begin offering classes...

Moraine Valley Community College's building program moved forward this week when the board voted to approve a $73.75 million bond sale to expand its Palos Hills campus, and agreed to buy 12.6 acres in Tinley Park. The bond sale was authorized in March 2006, when voters approved an $89 million campus expansion plan. Since then, architects and engineers have worked on designs for three new buildings at the 17,000-student college. The board also voted to finalize the purchase of land at...

A longtime dream of St. Xavier University officials was realized earlier this month when they, along with trustees, benefactors and alumni of Chicago's oldest Catholic institution of higher learning, officially opened a satellite campus in Orland Park. "This facility will fill a growing need in Chicago's southwest suburbs for adult, graduate and professional learning for generations to come," said St. Xavier President Emeritus Richard Yanikoski. Planning for the campus began...

The Harper Community College board of trustees has approved additional projects, including asbestos removal, at its satellite campus in Prospect Heights. The college's Northeast Center, 1375 S. Wolf Rd., Prospect Heights, will undergo $1.5 million worth of infrastructure projects this summer. The college board decided last week to spend $186,836 to remove asbestos and renovate a second-floor washroom. The overall project includes upgrades of air conditioning and heating to 25...

When Greg Bielawski was hired as Carol Stream's village manager in 1980, a nationwide recession was looming. The gloomy economic times were evident in the half-dozen subdivisions that were in bankruptcy. The village's population was 15,000, a third of what it is now. Some major streets were made mostly of dirt, and the devastating 1987 flood that would damage many homes was yet to come. Given the political nature of being a village manager, Bielawski, who had been an assistant city manager...